All those moments, all those maybes, had an impact, but this much is certain about the outcome of Sunday's NCAA women's lacrosse final: Northwestern's five-year reign as champion ended in a way no one might have expected as the No. 2 Wildcats came unstrung during a 13-11 loss to No. 1 Maryland before a Johnny Unitas Stadium crowd of 9,782, largest ever for a women's lacrosse game in the United States.

Bad passes. Ill-timed fouls. Missed free position shots. A scoring drought of 27 minutes, 33 seconds. Dowd, the leading career goal scorer in NCAA tourney history, going without a goal for the first time in 13 tourney games dating to 2007, when she was a freshman reserve.

"We started to get a little casual when we were up 6-0, and they made us pay,'' Spencer said, brushing away tears. "We were so full of emotion but instead of putting it into our focus, we were fouling and getting careless.''

So the Wildcats (20-2) had their first season with more than one loss since 2004, the year before the title streak began.

Maryland (22-1) won its 10th NCAA title. It was both the first since its record streak of seven ended in 2001 and first under fourth-year coach Cathy Reese, who played with Northwestern coach Kelly Amonte Hiller on two Maryland NCAA champions.

"Maryland is a tremendous team,'' Amonte Hiller said, her voice cracking. "We knew they wouldn't just roll over and die.''

Northwestern scored on six of its first eight shots but Maryland made it 8-8 at halftime.

"When they saw the scoreboard said 6-0 against a powerhouse, they didn't let it affect them,'' Reese said of her players.

The Terps kept their hopes for a rally alive by negating Spencer's draw control dominance that had been key to the semifinal victory over North Carolina. Maryland had a 14-12 draw advantage.

Dowd's great asset, her quickness, seemed lessened after she missed six minutes of the second half with a leg injury she dismissed as insignificant.

"All credit goes to them,'' Dowd said of Maryland.

Give NU credit for a sixth straight title game appearance in a season that began with big graduation holes to fill. It finished the year with Dowd and Spencer as their only senior starters.